The use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track, identify and locate goods has grown significantly in recent years. RFID tags allow manufacturers, distributors and retailers, amongst others, to regulate products and inventory, quickly determine production, manufacture, distribution or retail needs and efficiently intake and outtake items utilizing RFID tags. The RFID tags themselves can provide any desired product data and may be scanned or read in any of a variety of manners.
Near-field communication (NFC) is a type of radio frequency communication technology, operating at about 13.56 MHz and at bandwidth of about 2 MHz, that allows for read-only and read-write communications between an NFC-enabled RF tag reader and an NFC-enabled tag. NFC operation is based on inductive coupling between two loop antennas, which allows for sharing of power and data between NFC-enabled devices. Typically, for proper operation, the distance between an NEC-enabled reader and an NFC-enabled tag needs to be under 20 centimeters, while typical RFID tag operating ranges can extend out to several meters, depending on tag configuration and reader power.
In certain applications, for example inventory management, retail display monitoring, medical compliance monitoring, and the like, it is desirable to obtain information about individual items within a group of items, or to determine the presence or absence of individual items within the group of items. For example, the items may be arranged on a shelf in multiple column and row arrays. While RFID technology can be convenient for such uses, NFC-enabled readers can only communicate with tags within the operational range. Information from tags that are located outside the operational range of the reader cannot, therefore, be obtained. A solution that allows an RF tag reader to obtain information from tags outside the operational range of the reader is therefore desired.